How Are People Framed for Crimes?

There are incidents in which people are framed by police officers, according to High Times. There have been numerous incidents of cops smearing drug residue on cars as a way of alerting drug-sniffing dogs. Also, there have been cases of New York police officers planting drugs during searches, as reported by Russia Today.

Furthermore, the New York Times highlights the fact that police officers can lie under oath to frame suspects, and 2011 was a year in which hundreds of drug cases were thrown out due to accusations of police tampering with evidence.

When it comes to frame-ups between civilians, there are women who claim they were raped to set up another person, Slate notes. According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 8 to 10 percent of rape reports are falsified. Other studies demonstrate that 40 percent of rape reports are filed under false pretenses. The general consensus is that the 8 to 10 percent figure is considered the average number of false rape reports.

False witness testimony is also a common reason why people are framed, and there are times when witnesses may not realize they are wrongfully accusing a person, explains the Stanford Journal of Legal Studies. According to a study, witnesses tend to have trouble reconstructing events from memory when giving statements to police, which leads to wrongful convictions. Since lawyers, police and judges rely a great deal on witness testimony, the validity of these statements is rarely questioned..